4 Essential Upgrades to Your PC for Gaming

Serious gamers go to a computer for gaming rather than a mobile. PCs are easy to upgrade and pack more punch than mobiles can hope to have, at this point. But your standard home computer is good only for Minecraft and other browser games. If you’re aiming for the most mind-blowing experience playing blockbuster games and you can’t buy a new gaming system yet, upgrading your current computer is the best thing to do.

Upgrading your PC for better gaming can be confusing and can cost you a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re looking for. With this guide, you’ll learn the hardware upgrades to get so you’ll have the gaming desktop that fits your needs.

Upgrade from a hard drive to a solid state drive.

If your desktop still has the old HDD, upgrading to an SSD results in incredible speed in startup and loading times. Heat buildup is less, too, because the SSD uses very little power. That speed is of utmost importance in online games is a no-brainer, it goes without saying that your PC must have an SSD.

Solid state drives also have longer life spans because of their non-moving parts, and prices have dropped considerably. The downside is, if your operating system or primary drive is still your old HDD, you’ll experience some bottleneck. So, you’ll have to do clone your primary HDD to your SSD.

Install a new graphics card or add multiple graphics cards.

Gaming without the latest and greatest graphics card is like driving a Porsche 956 at 40 mph. Graphics cards are the heart of any game, rendering graphical intensity, smooth movements, hi-res graphics and high frame rate. A good video card should have at least 2GB to 4GB of dedicated memory and a consistent delivery of 60 fps to avoid lag.

The problem with upgrading to a new GPU is its current soar in price due to the cryptocurrency mining craze, and it’s not expected to drop anytime soon even as bitcoin mania has subsided. A better option is to look at stores that sell MacBook pre-owned computers that are factory set with the latest CPU and two graphic cards.

CPU (Processor)

If the GPU is the heart of gaming, the CPU is its brain. The efficiency of all other components, like the graphics card, RAM, etc., depends on your CPU. Four cores is the standard but i5 and i7 are now common in newer desktop models. It bears mentioning that CPUs and GPUs go together, so upgrading both is necessary to get optimum effects for games.

Upgrade or add RAM

If your desktop has only the minimum RAM requirement (4GB – 8GB) and it’s running other programs, chances are you’ll run out of memory and your games stutters. Adding RAM is the cheap way to increase speed. Check the type of RAM on your motherboard because a different type won’t fit. To upgrade, the consensus is 16GB, which should be sufficient for gaming, livestreaming and multi-tasking. If you want to future-proof, or you’re a professional whose work requires a lot of RAM, and gaming is your secondary pastime, 32GB would be your choice.

Cooling system

The powerful CPU and graphics cards of your computer can get very hot during gameplays, so they must have adequate cooling or these parts get damaged from the heat. Factory fans are usually of the lowest model, and you’ll need to install a CPU fan or a graphics card fan for each component. Another option is a liquid cooling system.

To avoid too much heating, don’t overclock as the temperature of the hardware you are overclocking will rise in proportion. If you do overclock, make sure you have sufficient cooling to regulate the heat.